All Bulls' praise is before games

Another city, another coach, another playoff endorsement for the Bulls.

At this rate, the Eastern Conference elite are probably lining up to make first-round fodder of whichever team lands in the seventh or eighth seeds.

So take Pistons coach Flip Saunders' words, which came two nights after Celtics counterpart Doc Rivers made the same Bulls-in-the-playoffs-prediction, with a grain of salt.

Especially since it came before the Pistons finally ended the Bulls' regular-season mastery with a 116-109 victory Sunday night at the Palace of Auburn Hills.

The Bulls had prevailed four straight times and in six of seven regular-season meetings before Chauncey Billups scored 34 points and Richard Hamilton added 23 to help the Pistons officially clinch a playoff berth.

The loss dropped the Bulls 11/2 games behind Atlanta for the final Eastern Conference playoff spot, with the Nets sitting in ninth. The Bulls also matched their season low by falling 13 games under .500. Yet several Bulls chuckled on the bench near game's end.

The Bulls trailed 93-92 when rookie Rodney Stuckey sandwiched a free throw and a driving basket around a rebound basket by Jason Maxiell. Beyond the Pistons' role players, help defense and poor defensive rebounding hurt the Bulls.

"Until our defense picks up, it's going to be a struggle for us," interim coach Jim Boylan said. "We had so many breakdowns that they were able to drive by us as well.

Boylan angrily called one third-quarter timeout after Tayshaun Prince blew past Luol Deng and a late-arriving Drew Gooden for a dunk. He called another early in the fourth when Joakim Noah committed the same infraction.

Also, the Pistons piled up 15 offensive rebounds and a 24-16 edge in second-chance points.

"They really hurt us on the boards," Boylan said. "We have to get active if we expect to win. That's not just the big guys. The guards have to get involved too. There are a lot of long rebounds that we're standing around flat-footed and not searching out. That's just effort."

Ben Gordon made his first eight field-goal attempts, including three three-pointers, and made his first four free throws before missing a shot of any kind. That came at the 7:51 mark of the fourth. He finished 10-for-12 for a team-high 27 points before fouling out. But several Bulls struggled.

For the second straight game, Kirk Hinrich played fewer than 20 minutes while battling foul trouble. This time, he sat for the final 19:29 after his fourth foul.

"The last stretch of games has been hard to find a rhythm," Hinrich said. "I guess I just have to be more careful out there and try to play hard when I'm out there."

Deng rallied to score 21 points, but through three quarters, he and Gooden combined to shoot 4-for-21.

The Pistons played without the injured Rasheed Wallace but still built a 15-point first-half lead and led 54-43 at halftime thanks to Billups' 20 points.

"It just seems like we can't get stops when we need them," Gordon said. "We have to shore up that end if we want to make the playoffs."